FIRED Ceramics Club Hopes to Expand Creative Opportunities for University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Students

  

FIRED Ceramics, a student-run organization at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, provides students with hands-on ceramics experience outside the traditional classroom setting. 

Founded in spring 2026, the student-run organization has expanded its student audience to more than 250 members on the UWSP SPIN page.  

The club meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Room 198 in the Noel Fine Arts Center. Members of all skill levels are invited to participate in guided ceramic projects such as hand-built clay activities and wheel-thrown pots.  

During its first meeting of the semester, 102 people attended. 

 “We started off really small, and then after elections, when we got our new positions, we really just hit the ground running.” Said President of FIRED Rose Majewski, a senior at UWSP.

“90% of our club members are Natural Resource and Environmental Sciences majors,” said Majewski. “We have people from all the different colleges.”  

FIRED welcomes new and experienced ceramic artists by offering projects at different levels. The officers open the space to a beginner level and an advanced level. Those who come in as beginners do hand building activities, and the advanced members can begin a project right away.  

“If they need more help, or less help, we accommodate to that,” said Vice President, Janyssa Johnson, a junior at UWSP. “There’s enough of us to help people individually.”  

“We really have an emphasis on learning and taking in people who haven’t had this experience before,” said Majewski. “We have a lot of non-art majors in our club.”  

“I think also it gives a lot of the students a break from everyday life, academics, all that, and even with the few art students we have in the club, it gives them a chance to be creative and work with our studio space without academic pressure and without fear of failing,” said Johnson. 

FIRED is not only limited to students of UWSP. The club is open to the Stevens Point community. “We want everyone to be able to experience it,” said Majewski.  

Members of the club are required to pay a $10 fee at the beginning of the semester, or a $15 fee to cover the whole academic year. The club operates without traditional funding, so the fees help fund the club’s cost on materials and tools.  

FIRED executive staff have planned opportunities for members of the club to display and sell their work later in the fall semester.  

They will also have guest speakers, Julie Playl, on Oct. 28, and Austin LaRocca, an art history professor on Nov. 30 and Dec. 2.  

Majewski hopes the club continues to provide students and community members with an outlet to build connections and express their creative abilities.  

Brianna Ankerson

Ethan Laufenberg

Managing Editor and Graphic Designer

bankerso@uwsp.edu

llauf293@uwsp.edu